Racing
Newly gelded Caballus fires first-up
Sprinter Caballus has returned “a different horse” following two lots of off-season surgery.
The combination of a gelding procedure and wind operation has produced the desired effect with the Bjorn Baker-trained Caballus stamping his class on the Ortensia Stakes at Scone.
The four-year-old has always shown promise and even collected a Group 3 win at his second start for the stable in February last year.
But he failed to go on with the job in the spring, prompting connections to make a couple of tough calls and send him for the dual surgeries after he finished down the track in a Listed assignment in November.
Caballus returned with a bang in Saturday's Ortensia Stakes (1100m), mustering speed after a tardy start to settle behind the leading pack before jockey Ash Morgan made the most of his inside draw, pinching ground close to the fence and accelerating clear to score.
Josh Parr had ridden Caballus in two recent trials but was in Brisbane on Saturday to partner Overpass in the Doomben 10,000, however, Morgan credited his fellow hoop for laying the right educational groundwork.
"Full credit to Josh, he has trialled him beautifully this time in, really teaching him to get out the right way and hit the line," Morgan said.
"Drawn one I wasn't too keen on because I didn't want to have to hold my spot but I was able to just creep up, creep up without having to start him.
"I thought the leader would roll off the fence to the middle and if I could come up underneath I'd be hard to beat.
"He's a horse the team has always had a big opinion of and it's good to see him do it."
Caballus ($5.50 equal fav) got the verdict by three-quarters of a length over The Novelist ($13), who showed fight after leading, with Fire Star ($26) third.
Baker's stable representative Glen Lobb said they knew the horse had come back well but felt he did a good job to win after not everything went right in the race.
"Josh Parr has ridden him in a couple of his trials and Josh said to me about a month ago, 'he is airborne, this horse. He's a different horse to what he was'," Lobb said.
"So both ops have done him good.
"He drew one but he slightly missed it and had to do a bit of work to get up there. Ash had to dig him up then he over-raced a little bit and I was a bit worried.
"But gee, when he let down he let down good."
The feature race win continues a great year for Morgan, who recently broke through for his first Group 1 win aboard Private Harry in The Galaxy (1100m).
Melody Again ($41) gave the locals something to cheer about when she upstaged her more fancied rivals to win the Dark Jewel Classic (1400m) for Scone trainer Scott Singleton.
It was a special moment for Singleton who described capturing a feature event at the annual two-day carnival as being "like our Melbourne Cup".
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